Monday, April 19, 2010

The Upside of the Airspace Shutdown

I know it's costing a lot of companies a lot of money (they can afford it), but there's something very uplifting about the shutdown of Europe's air space due to the Eyjafjallajökull volcano. As they say, Nature always bats last.

I predict that in a few years this will be looked upon with nostalgia. It's like the eastern seaboard blackout of 2003 -- Oh My God, some people had to walk from Manhattan to Brooklyn!

I bet now they look back on that as a magical time. I hope so. All I know is that whenever things have not gone the way I expected, I more than not remember that time as especially vivid, a time I felt very alive, a time different from the countless days when you just do your work, eat dinner, and go to bed. Snow days as a kid, car breakdowns, places you end up sleeping that you would never have guessed at the beginning of the day.... They can suck when you're in them, but after awhile you learn that things always somehow work out and you end up back in equilibrium -- a little wiser, a little more jaded maybe, but a little happier too. And with a few more stories to tell, which you know you will.